Thanksgiving

November 1st:  "WHY do they already have Christmas stuff out? It's not even Thanksgiving! It's like everyone forgets about Thanksgiving!"-Hadley

I get it. I love Christmas decorations--the magical lights, the smells, the joy, all of it. I don't really love "Thanksgiving decor," whatever that is. 

This year I got some. 

Hadley was insistent on decorating for Thanksgiving, and I had to keep that stuff up until the day after, or there would be serious judgment from the now 10-year-old.

She decorated her room by thumb-tacking artificial leaves to her walls. (All the holes! At this point, it's just another hole.) She had glittery pumpkins scattered around her messy room. It wasn't pretty, but she was satisfied. It reminded me of decorating a dorm room in college.

To say everything is a big deal to Hadley is an understatement. She had big plans for this Thanksgiving. Her enthusiasm and expectations, although exhausting, are contagious, and she makes me want to do more and live bigger. 

I got out my grandmother's (Ma-Maw's) china and crystal. Hadley labeled the place setting turkeys, and we found a Thanksgiving dinner playlist.

I even bought a banner.

Since my entire family couldn't all get together on Thursday, we had a small Thanksgiving dinner and invited my dad. Isn't he cute?

And the FOOD...

We planned our larger family Thanksgiving (still just immediate family) for Sunday, and questions of "dressing up" came up on Saturday evening. 

Saturday. Evening. 

"We need family photos! And we need to all match! Let's go pick out our clothes!" 

Saturday. Evening. 

Deep breathing exercises come in handy at this point.

This is precious, IF your child doesn't hate every item of clothing in the house. I finally caved (I was tired. It was getting late.) and agreed to make a trip to Wal Mart for photo clothes. Oh, and these clothes could NOT be Christmas colors or pajamas. This was a THANKSGIVING photo, to be clear.

You know, there are many things I dislike about Wal Mart, but the fact that I can pick up my coffee creamer and wine AND find matching, inexpensive clothes for a photo are not some of them.

Hadley wanted me to wear a dress (what's that?), so I picked up this cute fall-colored dress on the sale rack. We found some shirts and pants (which she did NOT end up wearing) for her and for Charlie. (Charlie is always a good sport. He will wear whatever we hand him.) We had a little photo shoot in the backyard. 

As different as this year has been, I can't help but feel very thankful that my family is healthy. We have all, as a country, been so divided, and on this one day, I saw people posting pictures of their "different" Thanksgivings. Whether getting takeout or learning to cook new foods, every one of us was celebrating our thankfulness. There is a very comforting, unifying feeling in this for me. No one (in my feed, at least) was talking politics or bashing other groups of people. All were just soaking in what they had on that day at that moment, however small or alone, and sharing their unique experience. 

This Thanksgiving definitely will be one that none of us will forget, and thanks to Hadley, we have family photos to go with those memories.